Ole Miss sweeps Florida; Tulane pounds Southern

By Staff
From combined reports
April 23, 2001
Junior left-hander Mike Gray and freshman right-hander Nick Bradshaw combined on a seven-hit shutout to lead No. 15 Ole Miss to a 4-0 win and a three-game sweep of Florida in front of 2,911 at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.
With the win, the Rebels (30-13-1, 14-7 SEC) kept pace with LSU and Mississippi State for first place in the overall Southeastern Conference standings.
Gray (3-1) pitched into the seventh inning, allowing six hits and three walks, while striking out one. Gray was lifted for Bradshaw after issuing a lead-off walk to Kevin Estrada in the seventh.
Bradshaw kept the Gators at bay to earn his first collegiate save. He retired nine of the 11 batters he faced, allowing just one hit and walking none, while striking out three. The only other Gator to reach base against Bradshaw was Mark Kiger on a fielding error by second baseman Matt Tolbert in the seventh inning, putting runners on first and second with one out.
However, he coaxed Matt Goss to pop out to third and struck out Aaron Davidson to end the inning.
The Rebels scored all the runs they would need with three in the fourth inning. Tolbert pushed the first run across with bloop single to center to score Banks Robinson, who had reached on an error to start the inning. A batter later, Clint Farrar drew a bases loaded walk to make it 2-0, and after Chad Sterbens flew out to right, Burney Hutchinson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Tolbert.
Carl Lafferty's solo home run in the eighth capped the scoring.
Tolbert led the Rebels at the plate with a 3-for-3 performance. Junior center fielder Kris Cox added two hits as Ole Miss out-hit Florida 9-7.
Ole Miss will return to action Tuesday when the Rebels begin a two-game series with Louisiana-Monroe at 6:30 p.m.
Tulane 22, Southern Mississippi 3: Tulane continued its hitting rampage Sunday and had its best scoring performance of the season in beating Southern Mississippi 22-3.
Tulane's Jake Gautreau went 3-for-4 and tied a career-high with seven runs batted in as the nationally ranked Green Wave (35-8, 13-5 Conference USA) swept the weekend series.
The Green Wave's 22 hits and 22 runs in the seven-inning game were both season highs.
Tulane scored in every inning except the first, including five runs in the fourth, five in the fifth and six in the sixth.
Nick Bourgeois (2-1) went six innings and gave up five hits before Michael Aubrey entered the game in relief.
The Golden Eagles scored two in the fourth and one in the seventh. Clint Stoy homered and had two hits for USM (20-24, 6-12 CUSA.)
Chad Rogers (4-6) was the first of three pitchers used by the Golden Eagles, who were beaten 17-9 by Tulane on Saturday. Tulane hit seven home runs in that game and came back with four Sunday, including two from Aaron Feldman.
West Florida 12, West Alabama 0: After taking two games from West Florida on Saturday, the University of West Alabama baseball team sent Brandon Lee to hill in search of the sweep on Sunday at Tartt Field. The Argonauts pounded out 14 hits and took advantage of six Tiger errors to capture game three by the score of 12-0.
UWF jumped out in front with two runs in the second inning and added four in the fourth and three more in the fifth to open up a 9-0 lead. The Tiger offense could never get on track, as Argo hurler Kenneth Tate went the distance, holding West Alabama scoreless on a mere six hits.
Scott Merkich led the Tiger attack with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate. Walt Simmons, Chad Case, Matt Williford and Martin Jackson all added one hit apiece in the defeat.
Brandon Lee took the loss for UWA, pitching four innings and allowing six earned runs on eight hits to move his record to 2-4 on the year.
The loss moved West Alabama's record to 25-20 overall and 11-7 in GSC play. The Tigers return to action on Wednesday with a non-conference matchup with William Carey at Tartt Field.